FailSafe Label Contest

After the successful elimination of the terrorists and their missile silo complexes, we have heard through various sources that they have relocated, and have doubled their security! Once again you must invade enemy territory and prevent the missile launching aimed at Washington D.C. and stop the terrorists once and for all!

Make your way through five different terrains in search of the Depot where you will pick up Fail-Safe clues. One letter in the code, in it's correct position, appears in the center of your fuel gauge. The sixth terrain is the most dangerous of all - the missile silo is heavily guarded by all enemies, including a mine field! If you make your way past that, you will have to enter the four-digit hexadecimal code to stop the launch and save the world. Do that, and you will start over in a more difficult environment. Otherwise...

FailSafe is a new Atari 7800 homebrew game by Bob DeCrescenzo (aka, PacManPlus), who has a stellar track record in releasing a variety of high-quality arcade ports under his belt. FailSafe is an unofficial sequel to Atari's original game Countermeasure for the Atari 5200. AtariAge and Bob DeCrescenzo are sponsoring a contest to create original artwork for FailSafe. This label artwork will appear on all copies of FailSafe, which will be made available for purchase in cartridge form after the contest has run its course. This artwork will also be featured on the cover of the manual created for FailSafe.

You can read about the game's development from the very beginning over in our Homebrew Discussion Forum, where you can also download the latest binary attached to the first post in the thread.

Before you craft a label (or labels!) you'll surely want to try your hand at FailSafe. Here's the remainder of the game descripton, continued from above:

Along the way you will encounter more accurate jeeps, cruise missiles, stationary shooters, pill boxes, and even the terrorists themselves, hiding behind bunkers! Don't worry though, the U.S. has dropped helpful packages which are unfortunately guarded by these enemies. But once you destroy them, the packages are yours for the taking! They will come in these forms:

(F) Freeze Enemy - these will jam the enemy radar and halt them for a period of time.

(I) Invincible - your tank will be invulnerable to enemies and their fire, but it only lasts for a few seconds, so be quick!

(S) Speed - gives your tank a temporary speed boost, making it capable to plow through trees, towns and water like they were open road.

(D) Distance - your tank will be able to shoot much farther distances than your enemies, for a short period of time.

When these power ups are about to run out of their power, your tank will begin to flash. Make sure you get to safe ground!

There are also 4 other packages, but they are much more rare and they don't interfere with the above power ups if you should find them:

(T) Time - Gives you 5 more minutes to reach the Missile Silo! You will be very happy to find these in the higher levels.

(P) Player - Awards the player with an extra tank.

(L) Letter - Washington has learned of a letter to the FailSafe Code that will help you stop the missile launch! Grab this power up to see what it is!

(E) Energy - Included in this package is a full fuel tank! Recharges your tank to maximum fuel.

The Left Difficulty Switch determines how many tanks the player starts with in reserve. Move the switch over to the left position to start with five tanks in reserve. The switch in the right position gives you three.

The Right Difficulty Switch determines how much time is given when entering the Fail-Safe code. Move the switch overto the left position to have 60 seconds to guess the code. The switch in the right position gives you 30.

Best of luck in your quest to save the country, and possibly the world!

The winner of the contest will receive a copy of FailSafe in cartridge form, featuring their winning label design. The winner will also receive a $50 gift certificate in the AtariAge Store. The contest will run until 11:59pm (EST), Sunday, February 7th, 2010 and all submissions must be received by this time! After the contest has ended, Bob DeCrescenzo will select one of the entries as the label to be used for FailSafe.

How to Enter

Both a main label and an end label must be included with your submission. For your label to be considered, please understand these guidelines and conditions. Any questions may be directed to editor@atariage.com:

Main Label - To be consistent with Bob DeCrescenzo's previous game releases, Bob would prefer that the label artwork take up the entire label, with the "Atari 7800" old-style heading at the top, overlaying the label artwork. The end label should contain the stylized FailSafe title and optionally the "Atari 7800" text that Atari used on their labels. Some examples:

Please keep in mind that the artwork for the main label will also appear in the manual created for FailSafe.

End Label Text - The end label must contain the game's title, FailSafe.

Clearly Legible Text - All text on the label must be clearly legible at the size the label will be printed (see below for actual dimensions). Please keep this important consideration in mind while you are designing your label.

Multiple Submissions - While we will gladly accept multiple
submissions, we ask that each label be unique from your any previous
submissions in some significant fashion. We reserve the right to reject
labels that differ only in color or some other minor attribute from
previous entries. We will gladly replace previous submissions with new
entries if you so request.

Use of Copyrighted Images - If you use any copyrighted images,
you must seek permission from the copyright holder before using that
image as part of your label. Likewise, any labels that use artwork from
a previously submitted label will be rejected.

Permission to Reprint - By submitting an entry (or entries) to this contest, you agree to allow AtariAge and/or Bob DeCrescenzo to reproduce your submission(s) without your having to grant permission or receiving compensation for the right to do so.

Labels should be saved in a non-lossy image format such as PNG, TIFF,
PCX, or BMP. If you need to save your image using JPEG for some reason, please use a minimal amount of compression. In order for the label to look good when printed, it should be saved at 200dpi
or better. If you are concerned about large file sizes you can drop
us a line before mailing the file, but generally anything under 10MB
will not be a problem.

Please take care to make sure your label is proportioned correctly. You
may download these graphics to assist in this effort:

Please do not send your labels already attached to these templates, they are provided only to help you properly frame your label. We will shrink and crop your label to the correct size and place it on the templates for inclusion on this page where others may view them. The original, high-resolution submissions will be sent to Bob DeCrescenzo when the contest is complete.

Actual label sizes when printed are 2 3/4" x 3 3/8"
for the main label and 2 3/4" x 9/16" for the
end label. If you have artwork that goes to the edge of the label, you
will also need a 1/8" bleed around the edges. This
bleed isn't necessary for the contest, but if your label design is chosen
as the winner it will be necessary in order to print the label.